9 Universities Vow to Work for Equality for Women Faculty

Presidents and Provosts from 9 universities issued a statement Monday promising the institutions would work for diversity in faculty, equal compensation and resources for women, and reformation of any policies that discriminated against women with families. The statement came after a group of women professors at Massachusetts Institute of Technology produced a report detailing the inequities and discrimination women faculty faced at M.I.T. The M.I.T. professorsí report prompted similar studies by women faculty at other universities. Problems unearthed by the studies include a lack of women leadership roles, small number of women faculty throughout various disciplines and discrimination against women who take time off to have children.

In addition to M.I.T., leaders at Yale, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, California Institute of Technology and the Universities of Pennsylvania, Michigan and California have pledged to work for equality for women faculty members.